Late Antique and Early Byzantinefortifications in Bosnia and Herzegovina(hinterland of the province of Dalmatia)

Perica S ˇpehar

The Western Balkans came under Roman rule during the reign of Augustus,when the region of Dalmatia was established, stretching from the Arsia(Ras ˇa) river in Istria in the north to the town of Lissus (Ljes ˇ) in the south,and including Kvarner (the bay of Rijeka). In the north, the province of Dalmatia bordered the province of Pannonia Superior along a line lyingslightly to the south of the course of the river Sava. In the east it borderedthe province of Moesia Superior along a line that goes from the confluenceof the Kolubara river throughC ˇac ˇak and Mt.S ˇara to the Lissus. Theborders established during the 1st century did not change significantly,apart from the separation of a part of the territory around the bay of Kotor and Skadar at the end of the 3rd or beginning of the 4th century to formthe province of Prevalis, while in the east the province of Dalmatia bor-dered the province of Moesia I, most probably along the course of the river Drina.

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Geographically, the province of Dalmatia can be divided into twozones: the coastal and the mountainous regions. The karst coastland is dis-tinguished by its indented coastline and many islands and bays, but with asmall number of fertile fields suitable for agricultural activity. North of theAdriatic coastal area, stretching to the Sava basin, numerous mountains riseto over 1800 meters, covered with deciduous and coniferous woodland.However, the pronounced mountain landscape of the hinterland of theprovince of Dalmatia also has many fields and meadows, situated at thefeet of the mountains, which encircle them. These geographical character-istics created varying climatic differences, so that the coastal region has aMediterranean climate, whereas the hinterland is dominated by a charac-teristic moderate continental climate.

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1

Wilkes 1969, 78f.

2

Wilkes 1969, xxiii–xxv.

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PericaS ˇpehar

The territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina today is situated on part of thearea occupied by antique Dalmatia, bordered by the river Drina in the east,the Sava to the north, and the Una in the west, although it should be notedthat a smaller part of the territory lies on the west side of the Una, and inthe high mountains in the south. In other words, the territory of Bosniaand Herzegovina today includes most of the hinterland of the former prov-ince of Dalmatia.The high, impenetrable mountains lying right behind the coastal beltare distinguished by a small number of passable ridges, over which it waspossible to reach the interior from the coast. Thus, on Velebit Mountainthere were two crossings by which the territory of Japods in Lika and Sisak on the bank of the Sava were reached from north of the Sinjsko Polje low-land, while at the southern end of Velebit there was a road joining Lika tothe Ravni Kotari region. Apart from that, a crossing led to the interior viaKlis, from which the road continued on towards the Sinjsko Polje, a routethat followed the course of the Neretva river.

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Although the geographical conditions greatly hindered the marking of road routes in the hinterland of the province of Dalmatia, numerous roadsexisted to secure the undisturbed transportation of valuable raw materials(such as wood, metal or salt). It is worth noting the road leading towardsthe Una and Sana valley, or the course of the route from Burnum towardsNarona, which passed through Andertium (Muc´) across theC ˇikola valley,and then through Sinjsko and Imotsko Polje towards the Trebiz ˇat valley,which lay near Ljubus ˇka and Narona. Apart from that, there were threebasic routes from Salona towards the interior. There one should note es-pecially the Salona-Sinj (Aequum) road, running towards the north acrossthe Dinaric Alps (that is, the Prolog crossing towards Livanj and Glamoc ˇ),then towards Servitium. The second route, leading towards the northwest,crossed through Cetina at Tilurium, and through the Arz ˇano crossing to-wards Duvljansko Polje. From there the road ran further towards the north-ern slopes of Ljubus ˇa (Mons Bulsinius), towards the Rama valley, thenthrough the Neretva valley towards Konjic. Then it turned towards thenorthwest, through the Ivan crossing, to the Bosna valley. There was noroad along the Neretva canyon, but from the region around Mostar the in-terior could be reached over the Prenj Mountain. Another road led fromSalona through Duvljansko Polje towards Kupres, then towards the north-ern part of the Vrbas valley around Bugojno, and towards the Las ˇva valley,situated around Travnik. There was also a road from Narona towards Tre-

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Wilkes 1969, xxi f.

Late Antique and Early Byzantine fortifications in Bosnia and Herzegovina

561binje through Popovo Polje, avoiding the mountains around Boka. Thisalso led to Niks ˇic´and the Zeta valley, from where it stretched further to-wards Skadar and Ljes ˇ.

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Road routes mainly followed the course of the valleys, which stretchedin a north-south direction. An exception is part of the link between Salonaand Sirmium, which ran through Cibalae like many of the routes from thetown now known as Sarajevo towards the east, connecting it to miningcentres. These roads led towards today’s Zvornik, Goraz ˇde, Uz ˇice andC ˇac ˇak.

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The Romanisation of the province of Dalmatia, whose territory was al-ready inhabited by the Illyrians, began immediately on its creation. Thegeo-climatic characteristics and resources of the region played a decisiverole during colonisation and formed the basis for the commercial activityof the defined area. Thus the coastal inhabitants focused on navigation (i.e.maritime trade), leading to the appearance of large, established ports, suchas Salona, which also represented the administrative centre for the wholeprovince. Then in the hinterland, forestry and mining (not only to extractmetal ores but also for the exploitation of salt) were dominant,

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together with agricultural activity, including both crop cultivation and livestock-breeding, although these activities were rather limited to the narrow, fertileriver valleys such as the Neretva, or inland plateaus, or „polja“, such as Gla-moc ˇko and Livanjsko. The newly arrived inhabitants were mainly concen-trated in lowland areas, where urban centres were formed, while only mineswere situated at higher altitudes, together with smaller military posts con-trolling roads and communications. During the Late Antique period thesituation changed to a large extent, due to Barbarian invasions causing thecoastland inhabitants to seek refuge at higher altitudes and in less acces-sible, fortified positions.The archaeological study of Bosnia and Herzegovina only began at theend of the 19th century, when a number of researchers, especially V. Ra-dimsky and F. Fiala, carried out explorative surveys, while on individual oc-casions smaller sounding excavations were carried out. The further courseof excavation was predominantly focused on prehistoric archaeology, sothat only a small number of Late Antique fortifications were archaeologi-cally excavated and publicised in an adequate way. Thanks to the greatundertaking of the publication of the